Comedy strikes in small, deft 'L'Iceberg'

July 27, 2007|By Michael Phillips, Tribune movie critic

It trades in a peculiarly controlled brand of physical clowning, but the Belgian comedy "L'Iceberg" sees its implacable visual approach to slapstick through to the end, a little bitter, a little sweet. It's heartening to see anyone pull off any sort of comedy along these classically established lines.

Marked by long takes held by a fixed camera, the film is the work of a three-person collective made up of writer-directors Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon and Bruno Romy. Their background (they trained at the Lecoq school in Paris) is in performance and the circus, and for their first cinematic effort they create a story of a fast-food restaurant manager (Gordon) who is locked in the walk-in freezer one night after work. She's let out, chilled, the next day; her husband (Abel) and kids take no notice of her absence. Fiona slips into an obsession with snow, ice, ice cream and other frozen marvels, and finally flees her pristine, Jacques Tati-inspired urban orbit with its relentlessly codified color coordination and daily routines.

With the help of a sailor (Philippe Martz) and his little dingy dubbed "Le titanique," she's off to commune with the icebergs in earnest.

This is very small-scale comedy, freely trading in location work on land and sea as well as flagrant artifice.

(If you haven't seen someone getting splashed with bucket-of-water "waves" from just off-screen in a while, "L'Iceberg" affords you the chance.)

At its peak moments the film makes you appreciate what its performers can do with simple, happily stupid bits such as Gordon, who has a very funny, gangly way of running down a street, struggling to free her scarf from the freezer door.

Likewise, Abel's attempt to brain his romantic rival with an anchor is met with amusingly observed disappointment. And when Gordon and Martz pose for photographs before embarking on their tiny grand adventure, his inability to smile on cue is a straight-faced stitch.

The film won't be for everyone, but I'm happy to have seen it.

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No MPAA rating (parents cautioned for brief nudity).

'L'Iceberg' ***

Written and directed by Dominique Abel, Fiona Gordon and Bruno Romy; photographed by Sebastien Koeppel; edited by Sandrin Deegen; music by Jacques Luley; production design by Laura Couderc; produced by Abel and Gordon. A First Run Features release; Fri.-Thu. at Facets Cinematheque, 1517 W. Fullerton Ave. Running time: 1:24.